This year's ISBP2006 will take place at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis/St. Paul (USA). It will provide a forum for cross disciplinary discussions between biologists, biotechnologists, chemists, polymer scientists, and chemical engineers from academia and industry on the topic of biological polyesters that now increasingly find applications in diverse areas such as biodegradable and biocompatible plastics that can be made from renewable resources. The University of Minnesota is an excellent location for this International meeting. The University has a very strong program in biotechnology, biochemical engineering and polymer engineering. Furthermore, the Twin Cities area has a well-developed industry with strong interests in this field including 3M, Cargill, NatureWorks, Medtronic, and Boston Scientific etc. These companies will provide significant support for the Conference. With the current growing awareness of environmental issues and the trend towards sustainable production technologies there has been an increasing number of Conferences that address these issues. With its long history, the ISBP Conference series is among the pioneers of the current trends and is unique as it is specifically focused on polyhydroxyalkanoic acids, their microbial production technologies and their diverse applications. Because of the related nature of the polymers this Conference is expanded to include also polylactic acids and other biological polyesters. The technologies discussed will significantly contribute to reduce the dependence of the US economy on foreign oil.
